American Correspondents Find Anti-jewish Laws Still Valid in Bessarabia Under Soviets

American correspondents in Russia who are visiting the liberated parts of Rumania today report that they have found 16,000 Jews in the city of Botoshani, Bessarabia. They are being conducted through the area by Soviet authorities.

Four hundred of the wealthier Jewish families there are helping the others, one correspondent reported. The entire population of Botoshani is 22,000 as compared with 30,000 before the war. Two thousand Botoshani Jews were killed or deported by the Germen-Rumanian authorities. In the entire Botoshani district 60,000 Jews have vanished.

All correspondents emphasize that the Soviet authorities have left the Rumanian anti-Jewish laws in force in the liberated part of Rumania, as part of their policy of non-intervention in local affairs. This especially affects Jewish merchants. Jews, however, are serving as local officials and policemen and their children are attending school freely. Many Jews pressed on the correspondents the addresses of their relatives in America, asking them to inform their families that they were alive and well.